In our previous tip, we mentioned that ESI STD can translate 70% of the phrases correctly and that other automatic translators get to maybe 50% or less.

In general terms, will the MT (Machine Translation) industry actually be content with only 50% of “good” phrases and letting the other 50% go down the drain?

“Free” Translation

There are users that do not fret about this deplorable mutilation of our languages, because they justify this by saying it is “free”. In other words,

FREE TRANSLATION = FREE DISASTER.

This is what the industry has done and keeps on doing to this date, which has made MT be seen in other media as “not serious”, “impractical”, “useless”, “an academic curiosity”, or even a “joke”. Ask any professional translator chosen at random!

The philosophy behind ESI PRO

Since 1989, date in which the first experimental model of ESI was initiated, we identified this problem and made it our goal to erase that “impractical” image of the MT industry. Or a ´free joke”.

We acknowledge that automatic translation has taken several wrong turns due precisely to ambiguities of the language, for which it was essential to make several stops in the machine’s process in order to allow the user to take the wheel and dodge the holes in the bridge, thus making it to the other side of the river with a correctly translated phrase.

Here is where Word Magic actually makes the difference with the creation of a unique system in the world of MT: Interactive Translation or Human Assisted Translation (HAT).

The Interactive Translation (HAT) available in ESI PRO is, sticking to our bridge simile, simply a halt in the road to avoid falling into the river.

Sometimes a poorly-translated phrase can be corrected with a single click, as we saw in previous examples. But it may also happen that the bridge might still be broken up in two or three places, which would require an equal amount of corrections.

Tip for this week:

With ESI STD, there is no effort made by the user, and you get an “understandable” translation…although not “publishable”.

With ESI PRO, the user has to put in “just a little” effort, but he will get a very well-translated document.

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